Sunday, November 6, 2016

The founder of the Detroit Groove
Society house concerts series, Andrew Rothman, gifted the supporters of the
series with 100 minutes of high echelon jazz music courtesy of the Joey
Calderazzo Trio. Saturday night, the trio closed the DGS’s 2016 season. Ranked by some series regular's as
the DGS’s best season yet. Veteran jazz promoter Skip Norris—who’s
co-produced some of the DGS’s concerts—commented before introducing Calderazzo’s
trio that Rothman has figured out a new way for lovers of jazz to experience live jazz. The DGS’s
2016 season had memorable concerts by trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, vibist Joe
Locke, and pianist Dan Tepfer. The Joey Calderazzo Trio presentation was the icing on a banner season. The tips of Claderazzo’s fingers were still
smoking from his sets Friday night at the Jazz Café in Detroit. Claderazzo’s had
to same bandmates bassist Ben Wolfe, and drummer Donald Edwards. The entire
concert the trio went back and forth from unadulterated burners to heart
melting tunes such as “Hope,” an original Calderazzo wrote for the late great
saxophonist Michael Brecker. Calderazzo made his name in Brecker’s band. Now Calderazzo is best known as the heart of
the Branford Marsalis Quartet. And as a session leader, Calderazzo has put out
13 albums as a bandleader. Calderazzo
is a very physical and sometimes animated jazz pianist as he showed tune after tune
Saturday night. Calderazzo played every popular branch of jazz under the sun. The house
was shaking when the trio played the first two tunes. I overheard the guy seated in front of me tell his companion he
believed the curtains were going to catch fire during Calderazzo’s soloing on “Cheek
to Cheek,” and “To Wisdom The Prize. There was the requisite twenty-minute
intermission not to, it seemed, to give the musicians a break, but rather to give
the house piano a breather. If there was one downside to an otherwise terrific
concert it was Wolfe and Edwards also globally respected
bandleaders didn't get an equal share of the spotlight. Calderazzo was on fire and Wolfe, and Edwards had their hands full.